'i9U J General Notes. 263 



A Recent Turkey Vulture (Cathartes_ aura septentrionalis) in Maine, 

 and Revision of Earlier Records. — On August 27, 1910, a Turkey Vul- 

 ture was shot on Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and on the 30th it came into my 

 hands. I was told that it swooped down among some chickens, and on 

 the supposition that it was a hawk it was shot. It proved to be an adult 

 female, with moult well advanced. It was rather fat, and with stomach 

 nearly empty weighed about 4j pounds, about two pounds less than the 

 weight given by Audubon. It carried a No. 8 shot embedded and healed 

 in the left ulna and had lost the distal joint of the middle toe of the left 

 foot, and the next joint was stiff. 



This is apparently the fifth specimen to be taken and preserved in the 

 State, though the number of accepted occurrences will now number nine. 



The statements of Josselyn, Pennant and Wilson cannot be regarded as 

 affording any specific Maine records. The first appears in the Boardman 

 and Verrill list of 1862, based upon a specimen taken near Calais. 1 



The second is chronicled by Mr. Nathan Clifford Brown, in the ' Rod and 

 Gun,' December 15, 1874. This is the bird taken " about the first of 

 November " that year in Standish, Cumberland County. Later compilers 

 have accredited this to Mr. Everett Smith, who also recorded it. 2 The 

 ' New England Bird Life,' 3 in quoting from Smith, as cited, dropped the 

 name of the town (i. e., Standish) and the word " County," the record there 

 appears as Cumberland, Maine, thus taking the aspect of another record, 

 though fortunately the citations makes the case clear to anyone having 

 access to the literature in the case. 



The third specimen, taken at Buxton about the last of December, 1876, 

 is also recorded by Mr. Brown. 4 



The fourth, taken at Denmark, Maine, March 15, 1883, by Mr. Abel 

 Sanborn, has been the source of considerable confusion. Apparently this 

 was first reported in the Lewiston ' Gazette,' of April 20, 1883 (fide Gushee), 

 and what evidently is a clipping of this article is published by A. R. Gushee 

 in ' Forest and Stream,' April 26, 1883. 5 The place is not stated, though 

 the capture is accredited to Abel Sanborn of East Fryeburg. In the same 

 journal for May 10, Everett Smith presents the same record, giving the 

 date of capture as March 15, 1883, East Fryeburg. 6 In 1898 Mr. James 

 C. Mead corrected the place of capture, so the record should stand, Den- 

 mark, 7 Maine, March 15, 1883. 



In the ' List of the birds of Maine ' by O. W. Knight, this last bird ap- 

 pears under both, the Turkey Buzzard (Gushee) 8 and Black Vulture 

 (Smith) 9 . 



» Proc. Boston Soc. N. H., IX, 122. 



2 Forest & Stream, III, 324 (Dec. 31, 1874). 



» Vol. II, 137. 



< Proc. Portland Soc. N. H., II, 23. 



6 Vol. XX, 245. 



« Ibid., 285. 



' Maine Sportsman, July, 1898, p. 13. 



» Bull. 3, Univ. of Maine, 57. 



» Ibid., 58. 



